Bill Maher's $1 Million Offer For Trump To Resign May Be Best Way To Get Rid of the Loathsome Orange Cockroach

Wonder of wonders, President Donald J. Trump, aka Capt. Bonespurs,  said on Saturday that he would no longer hold next year’s Group of 7 meeting at his luxury golf club near Miami, a swift reversal after two days of intense criticism over awarding his family company a major diplomatic event.

Did Donnie Bonespurs do this out of a sober acknowledgement he was violating the domestic emoluments clause against presidential self- dealing?  I.e. selecting his own property as the venue for a major diplomatic event, and thus a "decision unprecedented in modern American politics with a president awarding himself a massive contract." (WaPo, Saturday).  

Of course not. This pinhead spouted about the "phony emoluments clause".  What do you expect from a dolt  that  has never read the Constitution and struggles with a 'Garfield' comic?  All Dotard knows is self dealing and hence actively embraces his own narcissism directed to self- enrichment. That is the sum and substance of his miserable existence.  If he can't make a deal that benefits himself he wants no part of it.   And bear in mind, like most grifters and criminal con men his "deals" are always inflated, exaggerated.  An AP examination of Trump's Twitter feed turned up 1,200 mentions of the words "biggest,", "smartest",  and "best".  (Denver Post, Oct. 20, p. 7A,  'With Trump It's Always 'The Art of the Big Deal'")  In his most recent transgression Trump claimed a crowd of 30,000 for a rally crowd in Dallas.  The Dallas Fire-Rescue Dept. made an actual count of 18,500 or below the 20,000 capacity of the American Airlines Center and 38.3 percent less than Trump claimed.

Why does this deranged man-baby employ such excess claims, hell outright LIES? Because like all practicing con men he understands that employing them is the best hook to sucker the gullible, lower IQ segment of the populace.  Thus, rather than offering solace to the Kurds slaughtered in the wake of his unseemly withdrawal of U.S. troops in N. Iraq, he chose to brag on his "deal"  as a "great day for civilization".  In fact, it was among the worst, and put a rubber stamp on allies' justified suspicion of the U.S. as credible partner in most global initiatives.

But as odious as Trump's withdrawal from Syria, it was not an impeachable offense.  However, his self- dealing to enrich himself via his Doral resort was.  As blogger Robert Weissman put it on smirkingchimp.com:

"President Donald Trump no longer sees fit even to pretend that he is constrained by the law or the U.S. Constitution. It’s hard to imagine a more blatant violation of the Constitution’s anti-corruption provisions than the president steering foreign governments to stay at his luxury resort.."

Nevertheless it took a firestorm of outrage to get  him to retract his decision, and even then it was done grudgingly and rife with serial insults and complaints at any critics.

 Trump wrote on Twitter  over the weekend, interspersing one tweet with the usual hyperbole, exaggerations and BS:

“I thought I was doing something very good for our country by using Trump National Doral, in Miami, for hosting the G-7 leaders.  It is  big, grand, on hundreds of acres, next to MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, has tremendous ballrooms and meeting rooms and each delegation would have ...its own 50 to 70 unit building.  Would set up better than other alternatives."

Let's pause here to note this is all horse manure   As Chris Hayes' guests pointed out on 'All In' Thursday, all the costs vis-a-vis Trump's Doral resort are already "sunk" - meaning underwater. In debt up to Miami's tallest condo. The Doral has struggled financially since the Trump family bought the resort out of bankruptcy in 2012, reportedly paying $150 million for the property. More than $100 million in loans to help finance the project came from Deutsche Bank. The property itself - as noted by Hayes -  has also been plagued with "flying vermin"  and had some not too good inspection reports of its facilities.

Given the conditions and  debt status at Doral,  having hundreds of  personnel from G7 advance teams first arrive to check it out and then return in June with their full delegations,  would merely provide a rescue for Trump to dig his sorry ass out of a financial hole. Problem is that G7 bunch would land in the midst of Miami's worst mosquito season - as noted by Hayes' guest Natasha Bertrand.  So, Trump isn't doing any "good" other for himself.  And as Ms. Bertrand also agreed,  any number of other places would be far superior alternatives.

Trump then carried on in his loopy rant tweet:

"I announced I would be willing to do it at no profit, or if legally possible at ZERO COST to the USA. But, as usual, the Hostile Media & Democrat partners went CRAZY!”

Ok, let's back up again to shovel more horse shit before moving on.  As Bertrand also reminded viewers there is no way profits would not accrue from the choice of the Trump dump. Especially as the arriving dignitaries would need several helipads - likely provided on the golf course. After the conference the helipads would then need to be removed and the golf course restored - all at cost to U.S. taxpayers.   Far from "going crazy" too many realized the fell, unconstitutional nature of Dotard's proposal and took him to task for it. Democrats (and many newspaper editors, e.g. The Denver Post)  immediately portrayed the plan as a blatant act of self-dealing corruption, and ethics lawyers said payments from the visiting delegations could violate the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which forbids the president from accepting gifts and funding from foreign governments.

Democrats in the House and Senate - to their credit- quickly introduced legislation intended to block the use of the Doral, a bill they called “Trump’s Heist Undermines the G7,” or the THUG  Act. The measure would have blocked the use of federal funds for the Group of 7 if the event were held at the Doral.

 The one who is crazy then, is Trump - for not grasping that is how his wacky nonsense would be received.

The fact this deranged  asswipe and certifiable moron could even be serious enough to write this claptrap shows he belongs in a straitjacket.  Do the country a favor? By letting foreign nationals stay at his flea and bed bug, mosquito -ridden dump that passes as a "resort"?  And then making the dignitaries pay for the privilege - to line his own pockets, of course.  (But one wonders if he'd pay their medical bills if they contracted dengue fever from a mosquito bite)

Trump added: “Therefore, based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility, we will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020.”

In the wake of what we've seen the past week, let us accept as a proposition that things will only get worse in the next year - especially with impeachment hanging over Trump's head.   As NY Times political columnist Peter Wehner put it on 'Last Word' Friday night:

"Republicans to whom I've spoken have known from the start that this is a person who's really problematic, psychologically unwell. At the beginning it was wishful thinking that they could contain or control him... What's happening now is Trump's pathologies are getting worse  and the guardrails are disappearing. So what we're seeing now is the worst of Trump, but it's going to get worse going forward."

The problem is that if his Senate cult followers then fail to remove him, he will become vastly more emboldened and make even more atrocious decisions- say than the Kurd betrayal, the Ukraine shake down call to dig dirt on political opponents, and the Doral G-7 self dealing .  As WaPo columnist Ruth Marcus said on 'Last Word' Friday night, when asked if the "dam" would finally break in the wake of the week's events:

"No. The Republican lawmakers will just stick with Trump. They have a 'me first' approach and fear Trump's base and being primaried. Until Republican voters turn against Trump it is very very dangerous - no matter what they privately think, say about Trump giving himself this big contract, or Trump in Syria. So they're not going to break with him in public."

This fear is also what led HBO ('Real Time') comedian Bill Maher to warn at the end of September of the potential political ramifications of pursuing Trump's impeachment, but failing to remove him. As he observed:

"If we do this, the country is going to be paralyzed.  I'm not saying don't. ... It's going to be paralyzed for a very long time, and all of the oxygen in the room will be taken by this," 

But then voicing the much more ominous danger of the GOP -dominated Senate failing to do its constitutional duty to remove the thug (which requires a two-thirds majority, or 67 votes.)  So what other alternative is there, short of invoking the 25th amendment (even more improbable), or Trump losing the election next year.? (Still not a slam dunk by any means.)  And we know how the Trump cabal will stoke the "fear the socialists" meme.

By Friday night, Maher had conceived of potentially the only real solution to eliminate the orange fungal parasite and blight on the Republic.    He offered to pay  $1 million for the orange mold to leave the office. (Which in truth he ought to seriously consider after Admiral William H. McRaven torched the traitor in a NY Times op ed and accused him of being a "threat to the Republic".)

Maher, a long-standing Dotard critic who actually got a Trump-filed  lawsuit tossed out (after he vowed he could prove Trump was the spawn of an Orangutan) said:

"Just take my check for $1 million. I bet I could get another 1,000 people just from here to the beach — including Malibu, of course — who would pay that much to see you resign," 

Bill  concluded, "Mr. President, it is really very simple. You love money. We hate you."

At first blush I agree with Maher this plan could work - knowing Trump's mendacious nature. But is $1 million enough to get Trump to move his fat ass out of the Oval Office for good?  I doubt it. I suspect it would take at least $100 million - and I doubt all the actors' contributions in Hollywood would make that threshold.   Besides, most would- be contributors would justifiably worry that this slimeball would renege. After all, look how he stabbed the Kurds in the back barely a week ago.  He'd probably do the same for this effort then holler at one of his rallies: "Ya see what I did to them dumb liberals and Dems! I stiffed 'em good!"

So we are stuck with hoping, as Marcus went on to say, that the polls favoring Trump's impeachment and removal hit at least 52-55 % of Republican voters to force the Repuke Senators to have their 'come to Jesus' moment and ditch the Dotard.

Either  that, or find a candidate who can beat him next year in the general.

See also:

Robert Weissman

Donald Trump

The Antidote to Trump's Corrupt G7 Deal? Impeachment and Conviction

More Reasons Than Ever For House Dems To Do Proper Oversight Hearings - Especially After The Manafort Sentencing Fiasco

"Uh, doh! I does brain fart so therefore I am ... da judge! Besides, Paulie did live an otherwise blameless life! Sniff!"

"Judge Ellis's assessment that Manafort led an 'otherwise blameless life'   was proof that he is unfit to serve on the federal bench.  I've rarely been more disgusted by a judge's transparent preferential treatment to a rich white guy who betrayed the law and the nation." - Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe, in a text last night to Chris Hayes, on 'All In'.

We saw from the very beginning that Judge Ellis did not really seem to have a grasp on Paul Manafort's life of crime, life of corruption. He was shocked at the number of people, reporters that had actually turned out to appear. He didn't understand why people were so interested in this man."  -  'Atlantic' journalist Natasha Bertrand, last night on 'All In'

"In an otherwise blameless life? What a joke!   In an otherwise blameless life he lobbied for arms for an Angolan dictator who burned women and children alive. In an otherwise blameless life he stole money from a Russian oligarch then went into hiding. And in an otherwise blameless life he invented a system of corruption where he took some of the worst goons, thugs and autocrats in the world and tried to whitewash their reputations so they would be exempt from reprimand from human rights abuses. He invented  corruption in modern Washington.  Today's decision, this slap on the wrist, essentially ratifies the world of impunity that Paul Manafort pioneered."  - Franklin Foer, Atlantic staff writer, commenting on Manafort decision last night ('All In')

Before going on, let's all agree that the behavior yesterday of  U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III in the trial of  Trump criminal associate Paul Manafort (on bank fraud and tax evasion charges)  makes it clear he either has Alzheimer's disease or is just plain incompetent and, in any case,  totally unfit to serve on any judicial bench.  There is no other conclusion possible in the wake of his earlier interference with the prosecution, i.e. interjecting his own irrelevant (and often ignorant) inputs and observations.  To remind readers, Ellis intervened regularly during the trial and mainly against one side: the prosecution. 

His incessant interruptions occurred in the presence of the jury and on matters of substance, not courtroom conduct. He disparaged the prosecution's evidence, misstated its legal theories, even implied that prosecutors had disobeyed his orders when they had not.  This lamebrain kook also expressed amazement that so many of the media could be present, "showing no grasp at all of the gravity or the case" in the words of court observer and Atlantic reporter Natasha Bertrand.  In other words, Ellis gave every reason he ought to be banned from giving any decisions other than maybe whether  a lease expires on a dog pound.

Now, in his latest (and biggest) brain fart misfire we've seen him give a hardened, white collar criminal and Russkie go-between a slap on the wrist sentence of 4 years.  (Mueller called for an objective sentencing guideline 19-24 years after Manafort's lying, jury tampering).  Let's also realize this robed poseur delivered the knuckle rap despite the fact Manafort uttered not one syllable of remorse, repentance. 

Those who need more evidence that Manafort is human vermin need to watch the superb documentary 'Active Measures' - which traces the entire historic arc of how Putin and the Russians recognized Trump as an expeditious mark to corrupt and destroy the U.S. political system. See e.g.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv3PbSMI7tY

Apart from Ellis turning his court and the judiciary process overall  into a 3-ring circus and shit show one still  has to howl with laughter even if you're not a political animal. This is at the spectacle of the Trump enablers twisting themselves into knots of excuses and rationalizations as the House Dems zoom in with hearings.  Trump himself, while we know he's losing his marbles as the assorted investigations close in,  has become even more radically unstable - almost like a rabid ferret on speed, or LSD.   As the span of Democratic House investigations opened this past week  - in the wake of Michael Cohen's public Oversight Committee testimony-  and especially after the committee sent out letters to 81 of Trump's associates, Trump had clearly lost it.

Fitfully striking out like a bombastic,  angry drunk- who'd just discovered he had to pick up the bar tab for 50 drunken pals - he belched  (tweets) in his own inimitable way:

"This is meant to harass innocent people." 

And:

"Now that they realize the only collusion with Russia was done by crooked Hillary and the Demncrats, Nadler, Schff and the Dem heads of the committees have gone stone cold CRAZY"

Subsequent tweets were equally in the "thou doth protest too much" mold as he spat out drivel like:

"This is a big fat, fishing expedition. PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!"

BWAHAHAAAAA!  Cry me a river,  you orange turd!

Of course, the Dotard's mad howling - like a psychopath overdosed on lithium in a rubber room- is purely for the benefit of his Reeptardo base.  Because everyone else knows the asshole is a swindler, criminal and now likely traitor. Hell, recent polls show the so-called "liar" Michael Cohen is believed over Trump by 50% to 35%. ('All In' Monday night). Other polls (same MSNBC show) disclose a full 64 percent of the American people believe Trump has committed criminal acts while president. So all his pathetic efforts to try to blame the Dems for his sorry mess are just that, pathetic.

  His own Justice Department - back in December - already claimed  that he'd committed campaign finance violations, paying hush money to two mistresses: Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. By virtue of this hush money ploy it thereby followed he was trying to manipulate the 2016 election result by buying the women's silence.  As legal specialist Harry Litman bluntly put it:

"One thing the (Constitutional) Convention certainly wanted to see impeachable was crimes committed in order to gain office in the first place."

Cohen's Oversight Committee testimony nailed that crime with a signed check he delivered as evidence.  Well, six more signed checks turned up yesterday when Cohen delivered them to a closed door hearing. CNN first reported that Mr. Cohen had produced the documents Wednesday. He had alluded to them before the Oversight and Reform Committee, specifically mentioning Jay Sekulow, one of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers, had proposed alterations to his 2017 statement.    

As for Dotard's repetitious mantra that the Mueller investigation on Russian collusion is a "witch hunt" - Ty Cobb - his former lawyer delivered a podcast ('The Investigation') in which he asserted clearly Mueller was a straight shooter, just and there was no witch hunt.  In other words, Dotard's tired repetitious loop basically reflects a continuously leaking, malignant embolism in Trump's excuse for a brain.  

Trump himself has been his own best accuser in regard to the conspiracy - not  "collusion" - since there is no federal statue for that. As WaPo reporter Max Boot wrote in a July 25 column:

"Trump is willing, under duress, to briefly and begrudgingly admit that Russian “meddling” took place in 2016 before reverting to calling it a “big hoax.” But he always maintains that the plot against America had no impact; he describes it as a “Democrat excuse for losing the ’16 Election.....

Here is the intelligence community’s assessment, partially declassified in January 2017: “We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election. The US Intelligence Community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions, capabilities, and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze US political processes or US public opinion.” When then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo claimed last fall that “the intelligence community's assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election,” his own agency rebuked him.

Outside experts who have examined the Kremlin campaign — which included stealing and sharing Democratic Party emails, spreading propaganda online and hacking state voter rolls — have concluded that it did affect an extremely close election decided by fewer than 80,000 votes in three states. 

Clint Watts, a former FBI agent, writes in his recent book, “Messing with the Enemy,” that “Russia absolutely influenced the U.S. presidential election,” especially in Michigan and Wisconsin, where Trump’s winning margin was less than 1 percent in each state.

We still don’t know the full extent of the Russian interference, but we know its propaganda reached 126 million people via Facebook alone. A BuzzFeed analysis found that fake news stories on Facebook generated more social engagement in the last three months of the campaign than did legitimate articles.  Almost all of this “fake news” was either started or spread by Russian bots."

As numerous security specialists (e.g. Malcolm Nance, Frank Figliuzzi, Cliff Watts et al)  have explained,  numerous other  events that unfolded were not coincidences but tie in to the Russia conspiracy with carny barker Trump giving away the scoop in plain sight.

According to Robert Mueller's "GRU  indictments" cited by former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah:

"On or about July 27, 2016, the conspirators attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts on a domain hosted by a third party provider and used by Clinton's personal office. They also targeted seventy-six email addresses at the domain for the Clinton campaign. '

Most interesting, this happened on the very same day Trump appeared in front of the media cameras and pleaded with Russia to hack Hillary's emails, e.g.

"I will tell you this, Russia if you're listening, I hope that you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. You will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens."

To nail it down former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade has identified the specific type of conspiracy as a "Klein conspiracy". She defined this as "a conspiracy to impede the functioning of any department of government."

 One technical legal website (USLegal) defined the elements as follows:

(1) An agreement between two or more people to accomplish an unlawful objective against the United States;

(2) The commission of an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy, i.e. cooperating with Wikileaks to hack Hillary's emails

(3) The knowing and voluntary participation of the defendants in the conspiracy.

Again, to appreciate the entire warp and woof of how Trump got into bed with Putin and the Russkies, please download 'Active Measures'.  It will be the best 2 hours you ever spent, but I suggest viewing it in half hour segments.  This is because there is so much evidence, historic background, criminal personae etc.  coming at you - almost like trying to drink water from the proverbial fire hose.

So all Trump's huff and puff about the House Dems "playing games" is so much distraction and diversion, or in Dotard Donnie's case, wishful thinking.   

Of course, in the wake of the heat from the House finally being turned up on the Dotard, you knew his bullshit protectors would work overtime to exonerate anything he's done and paint the Dems as overreaching. This despite the fact, as noted by Michigan Rep. Dan Kildee, e.g. - on All In Tuesday night

That Democrats have a constitutional obligation to provide checks and balances on a run amuck, deranged occupant of the WH. In other words, to hold Trump accountable for his actions.  Moreover, as noted by Rep. Kildee:

 "We in congress have to get to the bottom of this because unfortunately, we can no longer trust the U.S. attorneys operating under the supervision of William Barr, the attorney general, are actually going to turn over the findings of their investigations."

This is an extremely critical and relevant point!

Rep. Kildee also unambiguously challenged the specious nonsense that the Dems in the House need to "quiet" down and not make trouble with impeachment talk, investigations or oversight hearings - despite the fact the GOP quislings did nothing for two years.  Rep. Kildee's robust arguments also put the kibosh on former Obama advisor David Axelrod's take (Denver Post, March 6, p. A 9):  

"Maybe I'm missing something, but the hazard of an omnibus document demand by House Judiciary versus discreet, serial ones is that -  however legitimate the areas of inquiry - plays into the 'witch hunt' meme."

Uh no, it does not. Especially given the GOP House sat on its collective fat rump and did nothing for TWO years - while Trump flouted every norm and constitutional principle on the books. Oh yeah, and continued committing crimes!  So Axelrod is exactly the type of Dem Ninny and weasel that Rep. Kildee challenged.   More expected were the other usual Trump toadies, defenders  and  hacks, e.g. the ever predictable Holman Jenkins Jr. (WSJ, 'Mr. Chaos Vs. The Swamp'. A13, Mar 6), failing to recognize that Mr. Chaos  (Trump) has  spawned a swamp  (i.e. of criminal associates, former staff - now convicted felons)  to dwarf any other in D.C.

Jenkins argued  the House Dems would  have had "no incentive to spend unlimited sums investigating and destroying the guy who finished second."  Yeah, but see, he didn't finish 2nd. He topped out with Russkie help and also by hiding his hush money payments  to Stormy Daniels in violation of campaign finance laws.  Besides, any money the Ds spend investigating a REAL threat like Trump pales in comparison to what the GOP House blew through over 3 years investigating Benghazi.

Little Holman also claimed "with no Russian collusion all the Dems have is hatred of Donald Trump". Not so,  given as I showed above the evidence is for conspiracy, not collusion. As for hating Trump-  we don't need any excuses, subterfuge or fake charges for that!  He's quite detestable as a forlorn excuse for a malignant human all on his own.

Then there are the  (Rupert) Murdoch imbued WSJ editors ('Nadler's Obstruction Quest', Mar. 6, p. A14) who insisted the "examples (Nadler) cites are legal presidential actions" going on to agree "a president can obstruct justice while in office but only if he suborns perjury or destroys evidence  or commits any act impairing the availability or integrity of evidence."

Well, Trump has done all three!  He suborned perjury via his orders to Cohen in paying off the women (Stormy Daniels and Gina McDougal) in violation of campaign finance laws with hush money.  He also suborned perjury  when he directed the Trump Moscow negotiations (for a building there) throughout the 2016 campaign  and lied about, and directed Michael Cohen to do likewise. He did so because he never believed he'd actually win the presidency - but he still needed the Moscow deal. (As Cohen testified he "stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real estate project".)

Moreover, even if one is suspicious of Cohen's account there  is a record of Trump's Russkie dealings goinig back decades. As reported in The New Republic,  Aug./Sept. 2017,  p. 29):

"A review of the public record reveals a clear and disturbing pattern: Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia. Over the past three decades, at least 13 people with known or alleged links to Russian mobsters or oligarchs have owned, lived in, or even run criminal activities out of Trump Tower and other Trump properties. Many used his apartments and casinos to launder untold millions in dirty money .....Taken together, the flow of money from Russia provided Trump with a crucial infusion of financing that helped rescue his empire from ruin, burnish his image, and launch his career in television and politics....It's entirely possible that Trump was never more than a convenient patsy for Russian oligarchs and mobsters."

Of course, this very background helps explain why Trump is hyper paranoid now about Bob Mueller digging into his money trail, including leading right through his family finances.

Trump's companies also have destroyed email evidence, e.g.

Donald Trump's Companies Destroyed Emails in Defiance of Court ...

https://www.newsweek.com/.../donald-trump-companies-destroyed-emails-documents

Lastly, he impaired the availability and integrity of evidence via masterminding a Klein conspiracy in conjunction with hiding the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians (including GRU agents)  in June, 2016  and letting Don Jr. handle it.   This is yet another reason to get Don Jr. on the hot seat in front of the (now valid) House Intelligence Committee and grill the bastard six ways from Sunday.

As for one WaPo story that the Dems are conflicted over investigating Trump's "children"  e.g.


Democrats torn over scrutiny of Trump’s children

Give me an effing break!  These are full grown, criminal adults who have contributed to the Russian intervention and need to be taken to the mat. No stupid framing and sentimentalizing by calling them "children".  Does anyone with half a brain believe the Reptiles would hold back on going after Chelsea Clinton if they found the tiniest excuse? 

See also:

       

Cody Fenwick

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Donald Trump | Michael Cohen

Democrats Signal That Cohen’s ‘Explosive’ Closed-door Testimony Implies Legal Peril for the Trump Family

And:

Trump’s ‘Shadow Impeachment’ Began Monday. Will the Truth Save America From Itself?

by Will Bunch | March 6, 2019 - 8:03am | permalink

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